Sunday, May 02, 2010

Just a little more info on Iris

Iris smelled awful when we got her, that awful kennel smell dogs get when they're caged up; I hated to bathe her on her first day here, but it was necessary.

Although she wasn't anxious to get in the tub, once she was there she stood still as a statue through the bathing and drying. Even after a thorough bath, there's still some kennel smell to her.

Here she's rolling, trying to dry herself off.

One thing that really surprised us: Iris doesn't beg for food when we're eating. In fact, she didn't appear to be at all interested. Maybe her former owners never fed her table scraps. We hardly know how to handle this behavior, it's so foreign to us. It's a good thing, though; dogs with proper manners do not beg, and are far less likely to eat something they shouldn't.

This morning after Iris and I came inside from her potty walk, she went in the bedroom and hopped up into bed with Cliff, licking his ear. Considering Cliff's feelings about dogs in his bed, he handled it pretty well.

Iris and the cows met one another yesterday. She had never seen cows, I'm sure; she wanted to get closer for a good sniff of them, but they both dislike and mistrust dogs, and they kept trying to get to her until she got nervous about the situation and hid behind me.

just a quickie, to let you know, fragrant dryer sheets, really help furrs smell better, in between baths. i keep a box of them on top of dazzles kennel bed...anytime she or monkee smell 'doggie' i rub 1 all over them real good, have used them for yrs on all my furr babies. give them a try.

There must be something about the shelter experience that humbles dogs. Winnie doesn't beg for food either and she's pretty submissive around strangers. You wonder what they saw and experienced before...